The evening starts with a panel discussion, during which experts from the field of gaming and contemporary art discuss how games should be positioned and exhibited in a museum context, with: Isabelle Arvers (curator specialised in art and videogames), Bruno Felix (director Submarine Channel), Matthias Fuchs (game pioneer, curator and senior lecturer at Salford University) and Bart Rutten (curator Stedelijk Museum).

Afterwards the floor is yours to experience Sollmann (Part 1: The Harbour), FLX. (with a special opening incl. live players in the auditorium) and Styleclash – The Painting Machine Construction Kit first-hand.

You are also invited to explore a modest selection of recent games, which will be exhibited in game booths as playful interventions in various rooms throughout the museum. See what the 21st century remake of Pacman looks like, contemplate the mind-bending game mechanics of first-person puzzle platform game Portal 2, navigate your way through spaces that would even make Escher?s head spin in Echochrome 2 and be sure to get killed before going to the next level in Limbo. Load It! Plug in and come play with us!

Sollmann (Part 1: The Harbour) by Marcel van Eeden and Jorrit de Vries
Visual artist Marcel van Eeden and game developer Jorrit de Vries created a short third-person 3D mystery game that challenges preconceived notions of the traditional game avatar. In Sollmann (Part 1: The Harbour), the main character gets poisoned at the start of the game and gradually loses his ability to see, hear and move. Set in a 1940’s WWII harbour setting, the game’s narrative, its main characters and the most significant objects, such as the ship the Cornelia Maersk, were adapted from previous projects by van Eeden, thus tying in the game with Van Eeden’s larger body of work. Van Eeden’s analogue pencil drawings have been painstakingly translated to a 3D game environment by De Vries.

FLX. by Han Hoogerbrugge and Sander van der Vegte
Multi-media artist Han Hoogerbrugge and game designer Sander van der Vegte have developed a unique multiplayer platform game. In FLX., each player controls a character ? physically connected to others ? by means of an elastic band. Thus players are forced to collaborate without any possible means of oral or written communication in order to navigate through a series of linked spaces. Like playing poker, the non-verbal behaviour of your fellow-player is the only form of communication.

Styleclash – The Painting Machine Construction Kit by Jochem van der Spek
Visual artist and game designer Jochem van der Spek created Styleclash ? The Painting Machine Construction Kit ? a competitive abstract drawing game for the iPad. Each player can construct a virtual drawing machine whose main properties can be manipulated, thus influencing the machine’s visual expressive output. By choosing your type of brush, pencil or crayon and specific drawing technique, your machine creates a unique drawing. Not the players but the machines battle against each other for stylistic dominance in the playing field.

Ding! Award for A Split Second
These three short games are the tangible result of a three-year research project A Split Second ? an initiative of Stedelijk Museum and Submarine Channel which explores the concept of artistic authorship within the context of video games by fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations between visual artists and game designers. The project for A Split Second started in 2008, when Stedelijk Museum and Submarine Channel received the DING! Award, an initiative of the Dutch Cultural Media Fund, Virtual Platform and BKVB Fund.

The projects produced by SubmarineChannel and Stedelijk Museum were made with the support of the Dutch Game Fund (an initiative of the Dutch Cultural Media Fund, BKVB Fund and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science), Ding! Award (by the Dutch Cultural Media Fund, Virtual Platform and BKVB Fund), SNS REAAL, VSB Fund and SubmarineChannel.